Perestroika

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Perestroika
5 kopeck perestroika commemorative postage stamp, 1988
Russian	перестройка
Romanization	perestroyka
IPA	[pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə]
Literal meaning	rebuilding, restructuring

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Perestroika (/ˌpɛrəˈstrɔɪkə/ PERR-ə-STROY-kə; ‹The template Lang-rus is being considered for deletion.› Russian: перестройка, IPA: [pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə] ^ⓘ)^[1] was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associated with CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning "transparency") policy reform. The literal meaning of perestroika is "restructuring," referring to the restructuring of the political economy of the Soviet Union in an attempt to end the Era of Stagnation.

Perestroika allowed more independent actions from various ministries and introduced many market-like reforms. The purported goal of perestroika was not to end the planned economy, but rather to make socialism work more efficiently to better meet the needs of Soviet citizens by adopting elements of liberal economics.^[2] The process of implementing perestroika added to existing shortage and created political, social, and economic tensions within the Soviet Union.^[3][4] Furthermore, it is often blamed for the political ascent of nationalism and nationalist political parties in the constituent republics.^[5]

Gorbachev first used the term in a speech during his visit to Tolyatti in 1986. Perestroika lasted from 1985 until 1991, and is often argued to be a significant cause of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.^[6]

Russian-British sociologist Mikhail Anipkin views perestroika as a revolution of quadragenarians. In his 2024 book, "Party Worker: The Rise of a Soviet Regional Leader," Anipkin argues that perestroika was desperately sought by the younger generation of Party functionaries, and Mikhail Gorbachev sensed that demand. Anipkin draws his arguments from the political biography of his own father, Alexander Anipkin, a high-ranking Party apparatchik, who enthusiastically accepted perestroika and sought to further democracy within the Party.^[7]

With respect to the foreign policy Gorbachev promoted "new political thinking:" de-ideologization of international politics, abandoning the concept of class struggle, priority of universal human interests over the interests of any class, increasing interdependence of the world, and mutual security based on political rather than military instruments. The doctrine constituted a significant shift from the previous principles of the Soviet foreign politics.^[8][9][10] This marked the end of the Cold War.^[11]